Time goes so fast!
This was my last week working at this lovely regional museum. I have been here for 12 weeks and I really enjoyed this position. Although I have no experiences about museum education and public programs, this time I learned different skills. The internship was an excellent opportunity for my further study. Anyway, I still had a lot of works in this week.

The monthly meeting was held on Monday morning. I presented my works in detailed of the last 11 weeks, especially introduced the process of how to organize “touch-tables” programs. After that, I have a very short meeting with the museum curator and she arranged to me some final tasks. First of all, I checked out very carefully of all my paper works including “touch-tables” research report, “touch-tables” programs planning for young children and old people, educational resources of permanent exhibition, education worksheet and booklet for “touch-tables” programs etc. I have to make sure there was no spelling and grammar mistake of them. Secondly, I printed out different versions of posters and laminated them. Some posters will be pasted onto the wall in front of the museum. Others will be put into libraries, shopping centres, community centres, local schools and other museums and galleries. This was the first step to promote this education and public program. In addition, we also prepared to use other approaches includes direct mail, personal sales, advertisement and media release etc. Thirdly, I designed labels for the light table and sensory table. The label consists of picture and context. Therefore, visitors can easily catch up information through labels. Finally, I have to input the exhibition and program data into computer such as prop’s list. It can help the museum staff develop or redesign the “touch-tables” programs when I left.

I learnt a lot from the internship. It was really helpful. Hope I still can get a permanent job in the near future.

We spent two days to install a brand new exhibition last week. That was a documentary photograph exhibition. All of works were belonging to black and white photography. The theme of this exhibition was presenting a place in the wilderness. All exhibited works were collected by Brisbane artist Judy Parrott. She is a very famous female photographer and she travelled to the world’s southernmost continent on an Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowship in 2005. The exhibition presented the community life and extreme environment at several remote research stations of Ms Parrott. Besides a lot of black and white photography, the exhibition also displayed many found objects. Museum visitors can see a range of Antarctic items and listen to a collaged audio recording of ambient sounds, including the cracking of ice and the slicing of bitter winds etc. It was a very interesting and enjoyable exhibition. Otherwise, we also provided an informal public talk inside museum. The community residents can talk about the exhibition of “Antarctic”. They can have a cup of tea or coffee and eat some deserts through the talking. I hope all visitors can have fun here.

When I finished the installation, I was keep writing the “touch-tables” educational worksheets. During the last couple of weeks, I have completed the educational resources of our permanent exhibition and designed “touch-tables” programs for the public. However, I also got many small works to do, such as I wrote instructions of each educational booklet last Wednesday and arrange each items into the right kits of light table. After that, I have to numbering each object of “touch-tables” programs in case lost anyone. That was a big job for me. I brought plenty of objects for the visitors. And I needed to record the number on both objects and papers.

“Dress-ups” activities are very popular with people. Whatever, young children or adults like to play it. This time we are not only design different kinds of paper dress-ups activities for visitors, but also prepare to make real clothes for them. Actually, we got some clothes and hats already which local residents donated before. However, those clothes were pretty old and most of them were in tatter. Therefore, the museum curator and I decided to make new clothes for “dress-ups”. Our permanent exhibition presents the local history between the early 19th century and the early 20th century. Thus, I have to collect as many old photos as possible. And have a look what people wore during that period. After that, chose some interesting photos and sent them to dressmaker. The dress-ups clothes included women’s fashion, convict uniform, school uniform and sport uniform etc. It was really expensive for the special order. I contacted with the dressmaker and asked for a quote. There was 120 dollars for each.I also designed the other three worksheets for “touch-tables” audiences, such as home front theme, early settlers theme and local shops/businesses theme. These worksheets and educational resources were for young children from Kindergarten to 12 years old. Therefore, I must very carefully think about different questions for them. For example, I tried to introduce the local history and the exhibition object in simple languages. The educational kits were for local school’s teacher. Students can understand our exhibition and objects through these educational resources. Visitors also can learn the local plants, animals, famous residents and local businesses via these resources. I also have a formal meeting with museum curator on last Friday. We talked about all finished projects and the future plan of “touch-tables” programs. Next week, a new photography exhibition will be held in our museum. I also will join the installation job.